April 22, 2024
This Washington Post headline as well as the first paragraphs of the story are not really backed by facts.
U.S. agrees to withdraw American troops from Niger
NAPLES, Italy — The United States informed the government of Niger on Friday that it agreed to its request to withdraw U.S. troops from the West African country, said three U.S. officials, a move the Biden administration had resisted and one that will transform Washington’s counterterrorism posture in the region.The agreement will spell the end of a U.S. troop presence that totaled more than 1,000 and throw into question the status of a $110 million U.S. air base that is only six years old. It is the culmination of a military coup last year that ousted the country’s democratically elected government and installed a junta that declared America’s military presence there “illegal.”
“The prime minister has asked us to withdraw U.S. troops, and we have agreed to do that,” a senior State Department official told The Washington Post in an interview. This official, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive situation.
The decision was sealed in a meeting earlier Friday between Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Niger’s prime minister, Ali Lamine Zeine.
The U.S. drone base in Niger is used by the Pentagon and CIA to keep control of ISIS in the region.
So are U.S. troops really leaving Niger?
Of course not - at least not yet.
The next paragraph reveals what was really agreed upon. It makes it obvious that the U.S. wants to delay the issue as long as possible:
“We’ve agreed to begin conversations within days about how to develop a plan” to withdraw troops, said the senior State Department official. “They’ve agreed that we do it in an orderly and responsible way. And we will need to probably dispatch folks to Niamey to sit down and hash it out. And that of course will be a Defense Department project.”
- "We have agreed to begin conservations" - (we didn't really agree to pull out troops, just to talks)
- "about how to develop a plan" - (should we write a plan for something-something in Excel or Word?)
- "in an orderly and responsible way" - (we see absolutely no time pressure or deadline)
- "need to probably dispatch folks to Niamey" - (there will be many delays and the team will change often)
- "that of course will be a Defense Department project" - (We, the State Department, will hardly be involved. When the shit hits the fan the Pentagon will be to blame for it.)
A Pentagon spokesman did not immediately offer comment.The United States had paused its security cooperation with Niger, limiting U.S. activities — including unarmed drone flights. But U.S. service members have remained in the country, unable to fulfill their responsibilities and feeling left in the dark by leadership at the U.S. Embassy as negotiations continued, according to a recent whistleblower complaint.
There have since been more protests in Niger demanding the exit of U.S. troops:
In the town of Agadez, home to a US air base, hundreds of demonstrators gathered to demand the departure of American forces.The protests were organised by a coalition of civil society groups that have supported the current military regime since it came to power last year.
It seems to me that the new regime in Niger can and will have to escalate this.
Posted by b on April 22, 2024 at 16:57 UTC | Permalink